The Sharks go on the road, Brent Burns goes home and another NHL coach goes bye-bye

It’s a travel day for DP. So while he was packing his winter clothes this morning, I covered the Sharks’ early practice before they flew to Minnesota to begin a four-game road trip.

The print edition story will be looking at how the difficulty factor of the Sharks’ schedule is about to kick up a notch. San Jose will play 17 of its next 23 games away from the Shark Tank over the next six or so weeks.

But for defenseman Brent Burns, he’s actually going home. Burns kept his Minnesota house after being traded to San Jose last June. But Burns said Monday that he doesn’t plan on stopping by the place and visiting his well-chronicled collection of snakes, reptiles and other assorted critters.

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“We don’t have a lot of time,” Burns said. “We don’t get into town until late. I want to keep this trip as normal as possible.”

The Sharks and Wild have played twice already this season, but both of those games were at HP Pavilion. Burns, of course, created a small firestorm with his comment about hoping that the Wild “lose every game” before the first time they played.

Burns, who again loves Minnesota and continues to have many friends on the current Wild roster, was careful not to say anything remotely controversial Monday.

“I’ve already gotten thrown under the bus once for that,” Burns said. “I’m just robotic today.”

But yes, Tuesday’s game holds important meaning to him.

“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Of course.”

* When the Wild beat the Sharks, 2-1, back on Dec. 6, Minnesota was the hottest team in the NHL. But now the Wild have gone ice cold, losing 11 of its last 12 games.

“Every team goes through it and we certainly do every year,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said of losing stretches. “It’s hard when you fall into that trap. It’s hard to get out. People question what you’re doing and everybody wants to make a changes. It’s just hard to win in this league.”

It has been a brutal, star-crossed season for the Blue Jackets, who after a 7-4 loss at Anaheim Sunday dropped to an NHL-worst 11-25-5.

The Sharks will see the Blue Jackets and their former assistant Saturday night with a game in Columbus. Richards has a job on an interim basis, but you would have to think he’s going to get the chance to prove he deserves the position permanently. He compiled a 77-71-6 record in two years with Minnesota before being fired after last season. He also was McLellan’s lead assistant during the Presidents’ Trophy-winning season in 2008-09.

“It’s an opportunity for him to jump back in and take advantage of it,” McLellan said of Richards.

Arniel was the seventh NHL coach to get fired this season.

“That’s seven out of 30, so that’s almost one-third of the league,” McLellan said. “It’s not just the coach, but there’s a staff that’s impacted as well and their families. So a lot of people have been touched.”

* The Sharks might be surging with an 8-1-1 record in their last 10 games, but special-teams play continues to be an area of concern. The penalty kill is 28th in the league while the power play is rated 16th. But even if the overall numbers don’t show it, McLellan said he sees signs of improvement.

“Our penalty kill hasn’t been excellent, but it’s been pretty good of late,” he said. “It’s better than it was. Some of the goals we’ve given up have just been flat-out mistakes, and that happens. It’s not running around or people being out of position. It’s just one guy making an error.”

Meanwhile, “the power play still has some work to do. But it’s still producing enough for us to gain points on most nights.”

Joe Thornton said he prefers to take the glass-half-full approach. The big thing, he said, is that the Sharks are winning.

“Every team has things that they would like to get better,” Thornton said. “Some teams are struggling to get wins, and we’re just kind of nit-picking right now. It will get better. But maybe that improves and five-on-five scoring goes down. You just never know. That’s why I just enjoy the wins when they come.”

@g-bum-man – you made good points in #20. Teams that have to kill a 5min PP might force their teammates to make smarter choices.

Zeke – nice article link, thanks for sharing.

Geri(h)atric

Mostly academic question: Now that Niittymaki, Greiss, and Niemi are all healthy and on the roster… does Niemi get a few games off here and there? And does Niittymaki get a start this season?

ZEKE

GEri — Nitty gets some starts. The Sharks aren’t likely to have 3 goalies — but you can’t trade Nitty unless someone sees if he has some game in him. So you’ll have to showcase him if you want to trade him. If you want to keep him, I guess you can let him sit out game after game as a healthy scratch — though that does seem like a waste of $1million

g-bum-man

I think the real problem for NHL Hockey is that it is in the midst an identity crisis since the last lockout in 2004. The game changed after that, and unfortunately, the old school hockey minds and managers, and the refs, and Buttman (Bettman) didn’t really understand the ramifications of making a much faster game. They did not truly understand what they were doing. They didn’t have a fully thought out vision of a high speed game with dramatic phyiscal impacts between players. They didn’t see the hits coming…to be a snarky. And that is the main problem. There aren’t rules in place to deal with it. They cannot control their own players or completely explain what the new style of play should be (because they never looked into the future to see what it could be like).

Now they are playing catch up, and as many of the marquis players go down like pins in a bowling alley, they are coming up with band-aid solutions. They are still not admitting that the game is too fast for the old rules of checking and contact.

Hopefully they will get a clue. Probably not before the talent in the league is decimated by an alarming amount. It is really looking more and more like this year’s winner of the Stanley Cup will be the team with the most elite players left on its roster when the PO’s start. What a crappy situation–I like to see the best vs. the best.

I just hope that the Shark’s players make it through the gauntlet of the regular season with reasonable health. If it is just Havlat and a couple of 4-6 d-men that bear the brunt of the beating, the Sharks will have dodged a bunch of bullets.

I tend to put the blame for this stupidity where it belongs–with the leader of the league. Thanks again Bettman…you are a visionary….go wtach the movie “Rollerball” and learn something…you dolt!!!

g-bum-man

**watch–ooops!

slappy

g-bum @56

Allowed equipment is also a problem now. Built for war not hockey. Shoulder pads in particular look like weapons.

Rose

Beer League

I don’t know how to reply to compliments here without coming off as a total idiot, but thanks, you made my day.

I want to say it again, but then I’ll have to send Dirty $20 With my Rose colored glasses on, that one is kill-filed.

Rose

Btw, so many of you here make my day (except the days when I don’t get a chance to read). It’s great to come here for my daily smiles and laughs, even though there is the occasional grrrr. So thanks!

Beer League

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